Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro announced the 14-month investigation had come to an end in 2008 because of a lack of evidence.

One of the investigators who shelved the probe behind Madeleine McCann’s disappearance has said it will be a “very rare situation” if the mystery was ever solved.

Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro, Portugal’s Attorney General in July 2008, announced the 14-month investigation had come to an end because of a lack of evidence.

He has since insisted he made the difficult decision to stop going round in circles.

And he claims he has seen nothing to warrant reopening the probe – despite the investigation restarting in October 2013 after cops linked convicted burglar and former Ocean Club worker Euclides Monteiro to Madeleine’s disappearance in Praia da Luz.

He said: “My office stated that the case would be reopened if new, credible and relevant information came to light and up until now, that we know of, that hasn’t happened in spite of the years that have passed.”

The former Attorney General added to Portuguese magazine Sabado: “If you were to go round in a circle and get back to where you started, then there’s no reason to continue the investigation.

“It’s true that in these type of crimes, the first hours and days are often decisive.

“It’s true also that there are cases that were only solved years later, but they were very rare situations.”

Echoing the words of Portuguese police chief Pedro do Carmo earlier this week, he admitted the Madeleine McCann case was “unique.”

But he distanced himself from the PJ national assistant director’s assertion that the Madeleine McCann case was a “thorn in its side.”

He told a Portuguese interviewer: “Thousands of young children and teenagers disappear every year around the world.

“Some of these are due to criminal activities and many never get solved.”

Dismissing claims by the likes of disgraced former police chief Goncalo Amaral that British political interference hindered the case, he insisted: “No diplomatic pressure was brought to bear on the Attorney-General during the investigation.”